Metagame Strategies
Note from DragonArcherZ: While the wiki focuses mainly on fact, we also want to provide some information for players, and this is a generally decent overview of the strategies and terms you should know. As you improve, you will develop your own opinions, but this page should be a good overall resource to improving, especially for newer players looking for some information on the game. This does not mean everything here is the best play, but it provides a guide for you. Enjoy! In this article, there will be a variety of strategies. People are free to post their strategies here, although FailingAtFailing (Austin.Micheal.Seto) highly recommends posting your strategy at the Stickpage forums before posting them here, as we want strategies here to be deemed viable by the community, and thus actually helpful. Also, please check to see if a strategy similar to yours has been posted here. Duplicate strategies, or highly similar ones will not help. If you posted your strategy on the forums, please provide a link to your forum topic for reference. Don't make your strategy too specific: it should be flexible and adaptable. General Terms Before you delve into the metagame, you should know some terms. Many abbreviations that may be used in later paragraphs are defined here You should also have a general idea of what units are capable of and how they work together, covered on each unit page of this wiki and in brief here General Manoeuvres These are unit control methods that should be used almost all the time, if not in every match, as these basic strategies are crucial to success. Usually the ideal builds used by top players and also an additional extra builds that are ideal if used correctly. 'Kiting' Quite possibly the most prominent piece of micro in games featuring fast ranged units. It involves a ranged unit moving while attacking. This is obviously very powerful. 'Backwards Kiting' The most common form of kiting. The unit doing the kiting will be running backwards from the enemy. When their reload animation is complete, command them to 'garrison' with the "G" button. They will spin around, fire a projectile and resume moving backwards instantly, while reloading. To fire again, you have to cancel the said unit's garrison by telling them to move anywhere that is not inside your castle. Backwards kiting can be done as long as the map allows or until the enemy unit catches up to the kiting unit. 'Forwards Kiting' Less commonly seen, although still done to chase down weakened units. When a unit's reload animation is complete, the said unit must be told to fire at a specific enemy. They will pause for a few milliseconds before firing. Once they have fired a projectile, said player must have the unit resume chase. 'Meat Shield' Many units in the game have very low health, so to provide some protection for them (at least from projectiles) you should have bulkier units placed in front of them. Generally, this consists of both kinds of giants and Speartons. Multiple Speartons in Shield Wall are more effective in the metagame (as of January 10, 2014) due to them being cheaper than giants, more mobile and being able to stun automatically stun multiple oncoming melee attackers with Shield Bash. However, giants have the advantage in pure bulk and being able to protect air units, which Speartons cannot do (One exception to this is when Speartons 'shield' albowtross by swarming around the enemy ranged units blocking them from shooting into the air). Giants also have a unique role in preventing targetted abilities from hitting their intended targets. Basically, put your meat shield unit in front of your frail spell casters or archers. If you are facing targetted ability users such as Shadowrath, Medusa or Marrowkai, you may opt to place your Magikill directly behind your giant (if you have one) so it cannot be clicked. You will still be able to use spells from it with hotkeys, but your opponent will not be able to target it, instead hitting the giant. Having meat shields is extremely beneficial as it saves weaker units and allow those weaker units to do damage as well. 'Pressuring' Also called harassment by some. It's a general fighting philosophy, that if someone is being attacked, they won't be able to focus on anything except defending very easily. Thus, one who has the tower could easily use small forces of ranged units to put force on the other's army and castle by killing miners, destroying fortifications etc. Usually done with the Tower Spawn to reduce losses if the person defending has a castle archer. High ranked players send in a tanking unit (spearton) to tank Castle Archer hits in order to enter the opponent's base and kill miners(economy). 'Cycling' Usually done with Enslaved Giants, although possible in Early-Game with Archidons. Essentially, in a ranged battle, low-health units will be moved behind units with higher health. This increases the lifespan of the units while maintaining full damage potential. Can greatly sway ranged battles in one's favour, depending on timing of cycling. Also used for all the other units to have a higher unit tank damage to give damage for a longer period of time. Openings Very often, the fate of the early-game, and the whole game can be affected by the starting units one purchases. The following are common openings that are feasible in all ranks. These openings are for regular matches, not Deathmatch. 'Order' Order has a diverse selection of starts, from its pool of three basic units - miners, swordwrath and archidons. Archer + Sword Usually used on short maps, provides large amounts of damage potential that is very balanced. Can initiate easy pressuring if the opponent does not attempt a similar strategy. This is usually followed by continuous purchase of swordwrath to back up the combination - usually 3 or 4. Heavily relies on micro from both the swordwrath and archidons. Archer + Miner Usually done on long maps. A kiting archer has large damage potential over long map due to kiting and thus can easily hold off many threats. Backwards kiting archers have slightly faster movement than forward kiting ones too. Provides a balance between a decent army and a decent economy, usually followed up with a combination of offensive units and miners. Swords + Miners Usually done on medium maps or long maps. Can be either 2 Swordwrath and 1 Miner or 2 Miners and 1 Swordwrath. This start is usually followed up with a combination of swordwrath and miners. Provides a mixed amount of economy and some army to hold off the enemy at the tower. Simpler than the above starts in terms of micro but provides no ranged support. 'Chaos' Chaos has very few viable openers - good players will start with 2 crawlers and 2 miners, followed by a third crawler for support. Crawlers + Miners Usually 2 crawlers and 2 miners. This allows for a balance, being good for both your offense (crawlers being fast and powerful in numbers) and economy (with the miners). 'Elementals' Elementals also have a good selection of starts, using its four basic elemental units - fire, air, earth and water. Fire The Fire elemental has the ability to kite as well as do burn DoT. This can make for a good counter against archer-sword starts, as well as do considerable damage to units in pursuit when it is forced to retreat. Normally used on small maps, this is bad for your economy - not allowing you to purchase any other units - but is good as a means for taking the tower. Air Using the Air start, one can dominate the sky in early game as Archidons are not so powerful against Air. The Air starters usually target the enemy's miners to force the enemy to garrison, causing economy disadvantage. If the enemy upgrades a Castle Archer, the user will stay guard at the middle tower, gaining economy advantage. As with the Fire opening, this start is usually used on small maps. This start weakens your economy considerably and is vulnerable to players rushing past your Air Elemental - the Elemental being slow and less capable of pursuit - to attack your miners. Triple Earth This starter can gain advantage on both economy and army as the Earth can be used to stun the enemy's army and are a massive threat when massed, just like the Swordwrath mass. As Earths cost 25 more gold than Swordwrath but can potentially die in a 1v1 duel with enemy Swordwrath, the Elemental player will need to get an economic adavantage to make up the 'lost' gold. This is often done by choosing the lower-health Earths to morph into Chomplers, because the user will gain economic advantage and more Earths can be trained. Due to the extremely short training time of the Earth, it allows for fast taking of the tower as well. Earth + Water By starting with a Water and an Earth, the Elemental player can potentially freeze one of the enemy's opening offense units, and easily pummel the other one with Earth's stunning attack. After this, the Elemental player can quickly get another Earth and get a good offense. The Earths can be transformed into miners later on or combined with Water for a Treature, which allows for easy pressuring with the scorplings or area control with its death blossom spell. This start a good lead into the mid-game and a very good offense and (potentially later) decent economy, as well as good harassment oppurunities to stop the other person's economy, but is easily beaten because of its main consequence - the bad economy that follows. Common Strategies for Order Click this sentence for the original forum topic rush being performed. The Speartons run past the Swordwrath and Archidons, opting to go straight to the statue.]] 'Spearton Rush' ''Information This strategy usually starts by going for a quick Spearton for the opening. This is accomplished by using both Miners to quickly pray for mana. Someone using this would hold a defensive position and use only a portion of their Speartons (keeping the rest hidden) until they have as many Speartons as their population allows. Once this point is reached, the person using this strategy would attempt to run past all units and attack the statue, quickly destroying it. Countering Someone using this strategy will usually hold a defensive position, allowing you to take the tower. Using the tower spawn, you can harass their miners, slowing them down and forcing them to deplete more resources on damaged units and defensives, etc. To counter the actual rush, if you have the tower, place two miner walls as close to the tower as possible to delay them. During this delay, your units can attack the Speartons. When one is destroyed, build another closer to your statue to constantly delay them. At your actual castle, Resilience will double the amount of time it takes Speartons to destroy the statue, while triple castle archers will deal massive splash damage. Feasible counter-rush units to use are Albowtrosses and Magikill. A few Albowtrosses with blazing bolts will do extreme damage to Speartons. Magikill can be positioned on the statue so that they can cast an electric wall on themselves. This will protect both themselves and the statue from Speartons attacking it, as they would receive massive damage if they do so. Poison and Blast will also do a decent amount of damage on Speartons. All in all, this is effective if the enemy is caught unawares and without defensive measures, but if your adversary is prepared, a Spearton Rush may well be your demise. 'Spearcher (Spear + Archer) This strategy has changed immensely since the auto-shield bash patch. The pre-auto-shield bash version is at the forum topic for legacy purposes. Only the post-auto-shield bash version will be here. Information Spearcher is highly used in the current metagame. It is simple and effective and almost any start can be morphed into this strategy. With 6 Speartons (One Line) one using this strategy can create a very effective line of defense. Using Shield Wall and Shield Bash (Automatic, which is what made this strategy so prevalent) the Speartons form a very difficult-to-penetrate defense which is highly mobile. Having essentially 10 bars of health for each Spearton which is Armoured, it is incredibly tough to take down, especially with Meric support healing them. Projectiles will be easily shrugged off and you would need at least more than 6 melee units to actually get through the wall (6 will be stunned with each bash) and those melee units must be able to survive a volley of arrows fired at them. Countering With the automatic shield bash, this is incredibly difficult to counter. An obvious solution would be to have possibly one or two full grown giants tank arrows for Albowtrosses with blazing bolts firing down at the Speartons or Archidonis. Of course, the Speartons will most likely assume an offense and rush one of the giants, wearing it down quickly. It is also possible to constantly harass the wall to wear it down until it dies, but this would be difficult if they use Meric support. Late game Magikill and any AoE spell casters can often counter this strategy but this strategy is most prevalent before the late game so getting the spell caster out and sufficient protection is difficult. '''Giant Mass ''Information Giants have extreme health and damaging potential, esepcially if the user of this strategy cycles weakened giants to the back of the army. Used due to the simplicity associated with simply making giants and moving them forwards. Countering This is commonly done with Enslaved Giants because Chaos Giants can easily be kited to death (An exception to this is when Chaos giants are massed in such numbers that they no longer allow you to run past them, though they are still vunurable to poke). Thus, due to their ability to only hit one unit at a time, A mass of raging Swordwrath , or a Spearton Rush could work. Due to the fact that Giants are armoured, mass Albowtrosses protected by giants would destroy giants. Sometimes though, there will be a mage for exactly these units, in which case Shadowrath support may be needed in the form of Shinobi. Magikill can deal massive damage with Electric Wall on the extremely slow Giants. However, the easiest way to counter this mass is not allowing it to happen by preventing the miners from mining gold through economy harassment. '''Archidon Mass ' ''Information Usually started with the dual Archidon start, which is done by setting both miners to gold and buying only a single Archidon to begin. Leftover gold would be enough for a second when miners bring in first gold batch. The Dual Archidon start is usually a surprise to the middle ranks, which is the basis behind the strategy: a surprise assault meant to disconcert the enemy. Eventually, melee units will be brought in if the opponent starts to bring archers. The trade off of one Swordwrath for an Archidonis is worth it. Someone using this strategy will implement guerilla hit and run tactics to wear down your army. If you chase them, your units will be kited, killing many units that try to get close. Countering Magikill will be able to quickly kill Archers with any of their spells. In fact, protected Magikill are the main counter to this strategy. '''Ninja Rush' ''Information Users of this strategy will attempt to get a Shadowrath as soon as possible to sway the game in their favour. Other than that, works very similar to the Spearton Rush in which the Shadowrath will rush straight to the statue. Countering A mass of Raging Swordwrath will reduce the effectiveness of Shinobi and Fixate. Castle Archers will be even deadlier to Shadowrath than to Speartons due to the Shadowrath's lack of armour. Miner Walls prevent economy harassment and slow down the ninjas for a bit. Countering is very similar to countering Spearton Rush. 'Giants + Albowtross Information These two expensive units will require someone executing this strategy to form a defensive position with extreme economy. The extreme damage outputted by the final army is very difficult to match. A magikill might also add to the very powerful damage of this strategy with poison and electric wall. The magikill won't be able to be targeted if the person places him very close to the giant so that the ninja or medusa can't click on the magikill. Countering A Spearton Rush will be able to run past the Giants and Albowtrosses. They can then destroy the statue with extreme prejudice (provided the opponent has no walls set up). If the person using this strategy lacks Shadowrath, Magikill protected by Giants may be able to poison many units, killing many of them and many more with blast and electric wall. Of course, due to the extreme costs of both these units, sufficient economy harassment may prevent the person from executing this strategy in the first place. For chaos players you may be able to use your own Giants and Eclipsors if you can get a head start in production but inevitably this will fail if both players keep building up as Albowtross deal far more damage. Medusa mass can be used to engage and stone face spam down enemy Giants with 1 or 2 Chaos giants for cover, followed by retreating to bring stone face off cooldown. As stone face deals 1/3 of a Giants health even at at lvl 2 giant growth the opponent will struggle to heal the damage back before you re-engage. Thus, gradually, you can target single giants down without huge losses/damage taken yourself, this strategy is vulnerable to ninjas however and usually prevention of the enemy production is more preferable. '''Ninjalbow ''Information One using this strategy will morph into it from a normal start. However, it will soon become evident that they are using many miners for mana (as massing Shadowrath and Albowtrosses is very mana intensive) Usually the first unit that can tip off the use of this strategy is a Shadowrath. 'Countering''' A very effective counter is Archer Mass, as kiting Archidonis will do heavy damage to chasing Shadowrath and will outrun and outrange Albowtrosses. Another possible counter is Giants and Albowtrosses. By having all your Albowtrosses target the enemy Albowtrosses first, they will lose their ranged capability (your giants protect your own Albowtrosses from a similar fate) and then their Shadowrath will be defenseless against the Albowtrosses. Of course, preventing them from building such an army with economy harassment could be easier. Common Strategies for Chaos Crawler Rush (Contributed by: Java_Script) Information A method of continuously queuing and training crawlers in order to overwhelm the enemy or snipe multiple miners. This strategy relies on not getting a single crawler killed early game and soon getting mana for early tech-up for the crawler upgrades and hold the tower. Soon, you go for tower spawn and attack attempting to have the Ghost Jugger tank Castle Archer hits (Assuming they have one) while your crawlers kill as many miners as possible. Countering Not lose any swords early game, garrison weak swords. A high degree of micro is required such as kiting and sword splitting just in case they bring out bombers. A mage is very essential in overcoming this build as crawlers have weak health and are much more prone to spells.In Chaos vs chaos, you can counter this by having 2-4 crawlers as tanking units in case the opponent uses ranged units and a continous output of bombers. With Elementals, you can use Treatures' Scorplings to chase the Crawlers and Castle Elemental for guarding the base incase they invade your base. Then get some Water and Fire to kill off those pesky Crawlers. Juggerknight Rush This is the same as a Spearton Rush, with the added advantage of the Charge ability which stuns many meele units when it is used. A person would wait until their army is filled to the max with only Juggerknights,then they would rush to the statue, stunning any units in the way. Countering To counter this, you could use two miner walls with a line of Speartons in front to tank damage. They would be in shield wall mode, and would constantly bash to delay the attack. Meanwhile, the magikill would cast an electric wall on the Speartons to cause damage. Castle archers and Albowtross might also be needed. Assuming they are noobish enough to do such a strategy, they will probably quit after you defeat thair army. Common Strategies for Elementals Earth Mass (Contributed by: BladedFire) Information A build that consists of a lot of Earth, which are used to stun powerful units and overwhelm a few ranged units. It is normally started as a triple earth starter and began to change into this strategy. This strategy has advantage on both economy and army to evolve to a later state where most combinations are a success. It is to counter the enemy's Swordwrath mass or Spearton start. Countering This strategy is totally countered by Archidon mass and Castle Archer. With Chaos, use Bombers to kill off the army of Earths or use Eclipsors to kill them on by one. When using Elementals, a lot of Airs are required and possibly Cycloids to stun and damage the Earths. Forest/Tree spamming/Scorpling rush This strategy consists of building at least 5-6 trees and possibly an inferno to deal AOE damage. The advantage of this strategy is that it is really easy to harass and rebuild your army to attack constantly. An inferno or a charrog or a cycloid would accompany the numerous scorplings to stun units, leaving them to the mercy of the scorplings. This is similar to the crawler rush exept it is easier to rebuild units and is cheaper in the long run(if the trees can last long enough to produce more than 3 waves of scorplings, although it tales longer to set up. It also has the advantage of having poison and more health 5 trees=2500 gold 500 mana 50 crawlers= 5000 gold